In 2019, a dancer raised in a converted warehouse studio in Como City, Illinois, joined the corps de ballet of American Ballet Theatre. She was the third graduate from her small school in a decade to reach a major national company—a striking statistic for a city of 35,000 surrounded by cornfields, roughly ninety miles southwest of Chicago.
Como City is not a name that appears on typical dance-industry maps. Yet for decades, this unassuming Midwestern hub has quietly built an ecosystem of ballet training that rivals programs in much larger cities. The reasons are part geography, part legacy, and part stubborn commitment to craft.
A Dance History Rooted in the 1950s
Como City's dance story began not with a celebrity choreographer but with a railroad pension and a retired ballerina from the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo. In 1954, Irina Voss bought a former feed store on West Maple Street and opened what locals still call "the Studio"—the first dedicated ballet school within a fifty-mile radius. Voss trained generations of teachers before her death in 1981, and her former students went on to found nearly every dance institution in the county.
That lineage matters. Unlike satellite branches of franchised dance megacorps, Como's schools remain independently run, often by dancers who can trace their pedagogical ancestry back to Voss herself. The result is a tight-knit training culture that prioritizes long-term technical foundations over trophy choreography and viral social-media reels.
Ballet School of Illinois: Classical Training with a Vaganova Spine
The Ballet School of Illinois sits in a converted 1920s dairy processing plant on the edge of downtown. Its pre-professional program follows the Vaganova syllabus, with students progressing through eight structured levels. By Level 6, dancers log roughly twenty hours of technique per week, supplemented by character dance, partnering, and Russian-language terminology classes.
The faculty reads like a directory of mid-tier American regional ballet. Marcus Chen, a former soloist with Miami City Ballet, directs the upper school and teaches men's technique. Elena Voss-Kowalski—Irina Voss's granddaughter, formerly with Kansas City Ballet—oversees the youngest divisions. In the past fifteen years, graduates have joined companies including Cincinnati Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and, yes, American Ballet Theatre.
What distinguishes BSI from comparable Vaganova programs is its scale. With roughly 120 students total and a pre-professional track of only thirty-five, the school can place dancers in companies without subjecting them to the anonymity of a 300-student academy.
Quick Facts: Ballet School of Illinois
- Ages: 4–19; adult open classes available
- Auditions: Held annually in March; summer intensive auditions in January
- Tuition range: $3,200–$6,800 for the pre-professional year, depending on level
- Notable alumni: Katherine Mori (American Ballet Theatre, 2019); David Okonkwo (Cincinnati Ballet, 2016)
Dance Center of Illinois: Where Cross-Training Meets Adult Inclusion
If Ballet School of Illinois represents classical orthodoxy, the Dance Center of Illinois operates as its pragmatic, wide-lensed counterpart. Founded in 1987 by modern dancer Patricia Holt, DCI occupies a bright, prefab building near the community college campus and serves roughly 400 students across all ages.
The school's innovation lies in its refusal to silo disciplines. Ballet students are required to take floor-barre and somatics classes. Contemporary dancers study classical alignment. Adults returning to dance after decades receive placement alongside teenagers in mixed open divisions—a rarity in youth-dominated studio culture.
Holt, now in her seventies, still teaches advanced modern twice weekly. Her successor, Dr. Samuel Okello, a former Alvin Ailey dancer with a Ph.D. in dance education, has introduced trauma-informed pedagogy and gender-neutral partnering into the curriculum. DCI also runs one of the only adaptive dance programs in downstate Illinois, serving students with autism and physical disabilities.
Quick Facts: Dance Center of Illinois
- Ages: 18 months to adult
- Class formats: Drop-in open classes; semester-based enrollment; no audition required for recreational track
- Standout programs: Adaptive dance; adult reentry ballet; DCI Summer Repertory Project
- Tuition range: $85–$245 per month, depending on weekly class load
Como City Ballet Company: Regional Repertoire, Local Soul
The Como City Ballet Company performs in the 1,200-seat Paramount Theatre, a 1918 vaudeville house restored in the 1990s. The company operates on a forty-week contract
